


Betrayal

by cytheriafalas



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-23
Updated: 2013-07-23
Packaged: 2017-12-21 02:24:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/894689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cytheriafalas/pseuds/cytheriafalas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by <a href="http://doodle-e.tumblr.com/post/55079094408/doodle-e-once-again-a-question-from-yours">this post</a> on tumblr. Runner Five betrays Abel, written from Sam's POV. Runner Five actually stays gender-neutral in this one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Betrayal

Love is whatever you can still betray. Betrayal can only happen if you love.--John le Carre

Sam closed his eyes, but the scene before him hadn't gone away when he opened them again. The Major was still standing there waiting for an answer to her question, hands folded behind her back like this wasn't destroying everything Sam had ever believed in. Janine at least looked personally offended, as did Sara and Evan. All the runners, really. Sam blinked again hoping that he'd wake up. He didn't.

It had started innocuously enough. Weird transmission issues that shouldn't have happened, resulting in loss of contact with Runner Five. (Info dumps.) Strange routes home that Runner Five always explained with stunning plausibility--zombies, potentially hostile humans, feral animals. (Supply drops.) Runs at odd hours always authorized by someone who wasn't around. (Face-to-face meetings.)

That was when Janine started getting suspicious. Sam hadn't believed it then, not even when Janine brought him Rofflenet messages in codes that neither Jordan nor Cameo could even begin to read. (Orders.) Sam was sure it was something else. Garbled transmissions, maybe, the way that webpages would turn all wonky if they didn't load right. Or the way you'd get that string of letters at the bottom of emails that had been forwarded too many times.

And then Runner Five staggered through with a bullet wound to the shoulder.

They set a trap after that. Four Runners scheduled to follow Runner Five once Maxine proclaimed the official "Cleared for duty." They weren't disappointed--or maybe they were. Sam was. They nearly lost a full bag of supplies they sorely needed--bacitracin and diazepam and lisinopril and insulin, as well as several feet of clean bandages still in their sterile wrapping. Sam didn't know what it all meant, but Maxine looked like she was going to cry when Justin handed it over.

It wasn't long after that. Major de Santa waited until Maxine was done with the runners then her soldiers arrested Runner Five. They spent the next eight hours in questioning, but Sam didn't hear anything for days. The soldiers emerged, but Runner Five didn't. Neither did the Major. One full and one empty tray came out.

Finally Major de Santa contacted Sam half an hour after the last runner of the day came back. She said she was just checking to be certain everyone had made it home safe, but not too long after that there was a commotion at the "secured facility" (Janine's basement) where they'd been holding Runner Five. Even in a place like Abel Township, or maybe especially in a place like Abel Township, word traveled fast. By the time the Major and her soldiers made it to the front gates with Runner Five, a whole crowd had gathered.

In the days following Runner Five's arrest, Sam had found the time to identify that the sickness roiling in his stomach not was the flu but betrayal. He'd accepted it and thought he had moved on, but the sight of Runner Five walking with head held high surrounded by armed guards, it flared into something hotter and darker. Sara's hand on his arm stopped him from taking a step forward. A guard caught the movement and Sam realized then that the guards were there not only to keep Runner Five from doing anything, but also to keep everyone else in check. It didn't bode well for what to was come.

Major de Santa's guards walked Runner Five all the way to the gates and then retreated, leaving one of the few people Sam really cared about in this place standing alone. That was how it should be, he thought viciously and vindictively. To betray them all like that--to lie, to steal from them, that was how they should should end up.

"You've been charged with high treason. Do you have anything to say in your own defense?"

Runner Five turned slowly to face the growing crowd at the sound of the Major's voice. They weren't standing so far apart and Sam could see Runner Five looking at all of the people. Gauging their reactions, probably. Or maybe taking one last look at the people who had been so thoroughly taken in by all the lies.

If Sam had been hoping for a protestation of innocence, which he wasn't, not at all, he was sorely disappointed. Runner Five stayed silent.

"You know the punishment for treason. Give us something, Runner Five. Talk to us."

Sam began to realize that Major de Santa was trying to get Runner Five to talk--that she'd never intended for this to go all the way, but there were no idle threats where the Major was concerned. If Runner Five didn't talk, the gates would open.

"If you don't say anything, we'll have to take your silence as an admission of guilt."

A small nod from Runner Five.

"How?" Sam demanded, his voice ringing out much louder than he'd intended. Runner Five looked over at him and Sam found his words sticking in his throat. "How could you do this to all of us? We trusted you."

He hadn't realized he was walking forward until hands were grabbing at him and hauling him back.

"I trusted you." And that was the worst part, he realized. He'd trusted this person who showed up out of the wreckage of a blown-up helicopter, who succeeded where Alice had failed, and it hadn't been thrown in his face so much as it fizzled into nothingness in the air before him. "I thought you were my friend. Or was that a lie, too?"

Runner Five's face was as perfectly blank as anything Sam had ever seen. Not an ounce of pain or an iota of regret. Just... nothing.

"Sometimes," Runner Five hesitated, glancing toward Major de Santa. "Sometimes, Sam, you do what you have to do, even if it isn't right."

It was the first thing Sam had heard Runner Five say since the runners came back with the bag. And it was the last thing he heard, too. Major de Santa gave the order for the gates to be opened. Runner Five didn't wait for a command or warning or goodbye, stepping beyond the gates and glancing around, choosing a direction seemingly at random, and taking off.

The gates closed and gradually everybody turned and left, heading in groups toward barracks or the mess or whatever it was they had been doing. Sam made himself be among the first to go. There was no point waiting around. Runner Five wouldn't be back and they wouldn't open the gates anyway.

We have to distrust each other. It is our only defense against betrayal.--Tennessee Williams


End file.
